Canadian Government?

[dumbdiety]

So what's up with this? I just don't fully understand it. All the newsites are declaring that the Canadian Government has been destroyed!

[me]

Canada is a mature democratic state. this is a no confidence vote, albeit the 1st in Canadian history - based on what i've read.

[these things happen in parliamentary system of government - especially when you have a minority government]

there will be a caretaker government until elections can be held, and a new government may be elected. but, it's not the end of the world - i haven't read anything about Quebec dropping out, or anything.

but, it's early in the process. things may look different in the light of day.

[dougj]

Diefenbaker lost a non confidence vote in 1962 over a nuclear warhead issue...in 1972 Trudeau also lost a non confidence vote on the budget (and went on to win a majority)....in 1979 the same thing happened to Joe Clark (not winning a majority though).

In my opinion the result of this will be a returning minority Liberal government with less support for the Conservatives. Canadians don't want Stephen Harper as Prime Minister, regardless of how convinced he is we do. the Bloc won't suffer much damage and the NDP will probably stay around the same.

I wish we had someone to vote for. unfortunately all we have are people to vote against.

here's a bit of info on non-confidence voting www.mapleleafweb.com/features/parliament/official-opposition/role-opposition.html
that site's a pretty good resource on how Canadian politics works.

[me]

me said:

this is a no confidence vote, albeit the 1st in Canadian history - based on what i've read.

i obviously read a news article that hadn't been fact checked. at the time i'd thought that was unlikely. my mistake.

no confidence votes happen in parliamentary systems with a minority government. that's just the way it works.

[Marie]

that's cute doug!

Canada is staging a revolution!! it's a coup d'état!!

Not only will they all be campaining during christmas but we have no one to vote for in the federal and in my case the provincial also!

[me]

marie said:

we have no one to vote for in the federal and in my case the provincial also!

this reminds me of some minor American politician who wanted to legally change his name to "None Of The Above" for the election. the courts said no way.

[WillTravel]

The 1979 no-confidence vote occurred over a proposed gasoline tax. One party proposed an 18-cent-a-gallon tax, the other party protested and brought down the government. Guess what happened when the other party was elected? (More than 18 cents, is what.)

[jennifer]

I live here and still don't get it!

[Jules80]

my issue with all this is i'm sick of the liberals, the bloc is a big no-no (although i'll piss myself if the party that wants to seperate the country becomes the official opposition for the second time), ndp i suppose i could deal with, and the conservatives blech! he's a mini-bush. although if it has to happen... only as minority so we can bring them down.

a minority gov't means the party holds less than 50% of the seats. so they can't push legislation thru without the support of another party. traditionally the liberals have the ndp as their allies. but the ndp didn't agree this time so the liberals lost the no confidence vote. and there you have it, another election.

[dougj]

if the bloc were to include newfoundland and labrador I *might* vote for them....a proper separatist party in newfoundland would probably garner a lot of support.

I dont' think the bloc should even be allowed in parliament. they aren't a federal party by any means.

[me]

jules80 said:

a minority gov't means the party holds less than 50% of the seats. so they can't push legislation thru without the support of another party. traditionally the liberals have the ndp as their allies.

the term i learned for this is "plurality." [have to throw out one of those US$3 words. although, as much as my folks spent on my BA, it's more like a $3000 word! ;D]

interesting that Canada doesn't utilize coalition governments. most parliamentary systems do. i wish i knew more about the political system in Canada. more than just Liberal, Conservative, NDP & Bloc.

- d

[Jules80]

i seem to remember talk of coalitions when the liberals were elected last year, however ndp said no. however, the ndp have supported them on all major issues until this one.

the Canadian political system is very, very, very similar to the UK one... its entirely based on it. so if you know much about the uk system then you know a bit about ours, too.

essentially you vote for a party, not a leader. you elect a party to the house of commons. prime minister nominates the senate. you serve on the senate until either you die, you turn 75 (i think) or are too sick to attend a minimum of 1 day a year (i seem to remember it being something rediculous of that nature). once a bill passes the house its sent to the senate. the senate can introduce legislation as long as it has nothing to do with budget. PM also (i think) appoints the governor general (queen's rep in canada)... who has to sign all the bills... technically he/she could veto but these days that would be political suicide... althought they do have the legal power to do so... i think that the PM nominating the gov gen came in when trudeau repatriated the constitution 1981... i think before than the queen nominated... insane that our constitution was an act of the british parliament until that time. my canadian constitutional history class was a good 4 or 5 years ago and the prof was fairly boring... so some of this might be a little off... but that's the basic idea....

[greenguy004]

Here's my time to shine. For Canada the Queen is still our head of state, and as such all laws are approved by her. The Governor General is the Queens rep (like you said) but is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the PM (the queen dosnt care and even if she didnt agree with any of the laws passed in parliament Canada would most likely just create a new constitution at this point). For those of you that dont know the Bloc is a party that only exists in Quebec and whose purpose is essentially to achieve Quebec independence from confederation. The conservatives are conservative. The NDP (new democratic party) are socialistic. The liberals are a middle ground. Minority governments, when elected, have historicaly been short lived in Canada causing another election. The problem with coalitions is that typically one party Cons or libs (recently libs) typicaly have close to a majority already thus comprimise is difficult.
My prediction for the next election is a Liberal majority with the bloc as the official opposition.

[LHR02]

My my...all this political talk!
You´ll get your hands slapped for that. ;D

Just thought I would chime in and add that here, at least on CNN world, this is being played up as a very HUGE thing indeed! There is loads of time devoted to it and everyone newswise is talking about it in very somber, serious tones.

dom

[jennifer]

I just hate politics! I know, it's essential, but man do I have no clue what is going on and I live here...sad lol!